Atheists: What Is You Attitude Toward Religion

In My Humble Opinion
81

Curtis, I’m gonna be charitable and assume **BigT **is right - or close enough to it - and that you’re exploring the concept of atheism as an intellectual exercise. So I’ll take my own stab at this.

I picked “other” because, as others have said, I don’t define my beliefs based on what I don’t believe in. To me, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, et al are all simply Stone Age myths about a magical sky pixie. One of them might mean something profoundly different to you (which one has been left as an exercise for the reader) but none of them mean anything to me personally. I know some religious people, and for most of them, religion functions as a sort of crutch. Which is fine - I don’t begrudge folks with broken legs their crutches, either.

I don’t belive in the Tooth Fairy* but I don’t define myself as some anti-ToothFairy. I just don’t … think about the Tooth Fairy, ever, unless I’m around small children or need an analogy for religious beliefs. But if people started murdering other people in the name of the All Holy Tooth Fairy, then that would be bad, of course. As bad as religion. In which people murder in the name of the All Holy <local diety name>.
Does that help?
*unless the Tooth Fairy bears a striking resemblance to my dad

82

I voted 2, and I thought i’d qualify that by saying that that’s my view in general towards any kind of extreme beliefs. In a sense, for me religion and religious belief are not in and of themselves a reason to treat someone differently; they’re just forms that philosophical views might take. It is the actual opinions and actions that I might, or might not, take issue with. A lovely, kind, and reasonable person with religious views is no better nor worse to me than a lovely, kind, and reasonable atheist. A total monster is a total monster irregardless of whether they’re religious or not. It’s what you do, not what you are.